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Sword of Tora’s Chad Taylor

Due to a last-minute conflict, we missed Chad Taylor at last month’s Queen City Black Comix Day, but we wanted to make sure we followed up with him about his new sword-and-soul comic, Sword of Tora, his follow-up to the debut of the 5ive footers. Check out what he has to say as he brings us up to speed on what’s been working on.

Midwest BSFA: What’s Sword of Tora about?
Taylor:Sword of Tora is about a village called Akioan nation that gathers historical data and preserves cultures of the past. The village was decimated by the appearance of the Darians. They were looking for totanium, a mineral that’s used for purifying the air and other things in their world, Darion—which is in another dimension entirely. (Imagine the travel fare on that! LOL) Tora, one of the only people to survive the incident grows up under the guidance of the village elder Sundi and trains to become someone who could cause a problem for them. Tora has studied their partnership with a teleportation company called Porttech, that wants to ultimatelty find solutions to our worlds problems from the Darian culture. Dr.Hines, the founder of the company wants notoriety and his place in history. I think that blinds him to the problems that the partnership could cause. Tora wants revenge, and if that saves the world in the process then that’s great, too.

Midwest BSFA: Whew! That’s a hell of a concept! How did you come up with it?Taylor: Well, I grew up on ’90s comics and I felt people wanted to see something more fast paced from me. Plus I wanted to show how I grew and improved as an artist and writer over the last few years. It’s some great sequences in it if, you haven’t seen any of the
preview pages I’ve put on my twitter and Facebook page.

Midwest BSFA: What inspired you to create this comic?
Taylor: I thought if how cool Afro Samurai was and just anime in general. I also like the sci-fi TV show Fringe. It’s one of my favorite shows in the past ten years.

Midwest BSFA: Is this your first venture into sword and soul? What drew you to it?Taylor: Yes, this is my first go ’round into sword and soul. It’s great because the sword is an extension of Tora. It’s like a limb. It represents her growth as a human being unable to help her loved ones in a dire situation and now she can impact things.

Midwest BSFA: Other than working on Sword of Tora, what have you been up to professionally since we last spoke? Taylor: Well, just promoting the last 5ivefooters comic (available on Amazon, by the way). I’m also getting my group at Uni5i Comics together. I feel the hard work being received and it’s a good thing.

Midwest BSFA: Anything else you want our readers to know about? Taylor: Thank you to the good people at Midwest BSFA. We need type of influence and impact. Also, Sword of Tora is available on amazon and amazon kindle app.